Stephen King's 'Firestarter' is Next in Line for a Remake

There's never been a bad time to be a Stephen King fan, since his books have seen a steady stream of award-winning movie adaptations for decades. But now is an especially good time to be a King fan, since a ton of new stuff is coming out: The Dark Tower movie,The Mist show, more It, and now the remake of Firestarter that was just announced.

The news broke at the Overlook Film Festival in Oregon (yes, it's named for King's The Shining) that a new Firestarter will be directed by Akiva Goldsman with Jason Blum producing. The two announced the news themselves after the premiere of Goldsman's film Stephanie, a supernatural horror film starring a creepy child. If that alone doesn't make him qualified to do Firestarter next, Goldsman has a very long career of writing Hollywood films, ranging everywhere from I Am Legend to The Da Vinci Code to A Beautiful Mind (which he won an Oscar for). His directing career is a little shorter, only making his first feature film in 2014 with Winter's Tale.

The most recent Firestarter was back in 1984, starring a tiny Drew Barrymore as young girl named Charlie McGee with pyrokinetic powers - the film was a part horror, part sci-fi tale about the government's attempt to turn Charlie into a psychic, firestarting weapon. It was based on the novel King had written a few years earlier in 1980, when he was still early in his writing career. But "early in his career" for Stephen King means he'd already become world famous for Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining, etc.

But while it may not be King's first or most famous novel, Firestarter is still a beloved book and movie, and movies about children blowing things up will never go out of fashion. Universal Pictures, who released the original film, will be taking on this remake as well. And in the meantime, Goldsman is producing and writing The Dark Tower, so he'll be busy with Stephen King stories for a long time.